勵志類英文簡短文章

　　有很多都是很值得我們找來看看的，那麼都有哪些呢?一起來看看吧。

　　：一切剛開始We're Just Beginning

　　"We are reading the first verse of the first chapter of a book whose pages are infinite..."

　　I do not know who wrote those words, but I have always liked them as a reminder that the future can be anything we want to make it. We can take the mysterious, hazy future and carve out of it anything that we can imagine, just as a sculptor carves a statue from a shapeless stone.

　　We are all in the position of the farmer. If we plant a good seed, we reap a good harvest. If our seed is poor and full of weeds, we reap a useless crop. If we plant nothing at all, we harvest nothing at all.

　　I want the future to be better than the past. I don’t want it contaminated by the mistakes and errors with which history is filled. We should all be concerned about the future because that is where we will spend the remainder of our lives.

　　The past is gone and static. Nothing we can do will change it. The future is before us and dynamic. Everything we do will affect it. Each day brings with it new frontiers, in our homes and in our business, if we only recognize them. We are just at the beginning of the progress in every field of human endeavor.

　　[參考譯文]

　　“我們正在讀一本書的第一章第一行，這本書的頁數是無限的……”

　　我不知道是誰寫的，可我很喜歡這句話，它提醒我們未來是由自己創造的。我們可以把神祕、不可知的未來塑造成我們想象中的任何模樣，猶如雕刻家將未成形的石頭刻成雕像。

　　我們每個人都像是農夫。灑下良種將有豐收，播下劣種或生滿野草便將毀去收成。沒有耕耘則會一無所獲。

　　我希望未來比過去更加美好，希望未來不會沾染歷史的錯誤與過失。我們都應舉目向前，因我們的餘生要用未來書寫。

　　往昔已逝，靜如止水;我們無法再作改變。而前方的未來正生機勃勃;我們所做的每一件事都將會影響著它。只要我們認識到這些，無論是在家中還是在工作上，每天我們的面前都會展現出新的天地。

　　在人類致力開拓的每一片領域上，我們正站在進步的起跑點。

　　：失敗是件好事Failure Is a Good Thing

　　Last week, my granddaughter started kindergarten, and, as is conventional, I wished her success. I was lying. What I actually wish for her is failure. I believe in the power of failure.

　　Success is boring. Success is proving that you can do something that you already know you can do, or doing something correctly the first time, which can often be a problematical victory. First-time success is usually a fluke. First-time failure, by contrast, is expected; it is the natural order of things.

　　Failure is how we learn. I have been told of an African phrase describing a good cook as "she who has broken many pots." If you've spent enough time in the kitchen to have broken a lot of pots, probably you know a fair amount about cooking. I once had a late dinner with a group of chefs, and they spent time comparing knife wounds and burn scars. They knew how much credibility their failures gave them.

　　I earn my living by writing a daily newspaper column. Each week I am aware that one column is going to be the worst column of the week. I don't set out to write it; I try my best every day. Still, every week, one column is inferior to the others, sometimes spectacularly so.

　　I have learned to cherish that column. A successful column usually means that I am treading on familiar ground, going with the tricks that work, preaching to the choir or dressing up popular sentiments in fancy words. Often in my inferior columns, I am trying to pull off something I've never done before, something I'm not even sure can be done.

　　My younger daughter is a trapeze artist. She spent three years putting together an act. She did it successfully for years with the Cirque du Soleil. There was no reason for her to change the act—but she did anyway. She said she was no longer learning anything new and she was bored; and if she was bored, there was no point in subjecting her body to all that stress. So she changed the act. She risked failure and profound public embarrassment in order to feed her soul. And if she can do that 15 feet in the air, we all should be able to do it.

　　My granddaughter is a perfectionist, probably too much of one. She will feel her failures, and I will want to comfort her. But I will also, I hope, remind her of what she learned, and how she can do whatever it is better next time. I probably won't tell her that failure is a good thing, because that's not a lesson you can learn when you're five. I hope I can tell her, though, that it's not the end of the world. Indeed, with luck, it is the beginning.

　　[參考譯文]

　　上週，孫女開辦了一個幼兒園。按常理，我預祝她成功。實際上我撒了慌，我真正對她的希望是失敗，因為我相信失敗的力量。

　　成功是令人厭煩的。成功只是證明你能夠做你已經知道自己會做的事情，或是第一次就能正確地做某件事情，而這通常是一次有問題的成功。第一次的成功通常都是僥倖的成功，相反的，第一次的失敗恰恰是值得期待的。這是事物的自然法則。

　　失敗是學習的過程。我聽說過一個在非洲用來形容大廚的詞語， “那個炒壞了很多鍋的”。如果你花了足夠時間在廚房，炒壞了無數鍋，那你也就掌握了大量烹飪方面的知識。有次我和廚師們共進晚餐，他們一直在比較刀傷和燙傷疤痕的多少，因為他們知道曾經的失敗帶來了無上的信譽。

　　我以為日報專欄寫作謀生。每週我都會意識到會有其中一個成為本週最差專欄。我並不刻意去這樣寫，而是每天都盡我最大的努力，但每週都還是會有一個專欄比其他的差，有時候差距還挺大。

　　我現在學會了去珍惜那個較差的專欄。一個成功的專欄通常也就意味著我循規蹈矩，採用一些有效的寫作技巧，向唱詩班佈道或者用絢麗的語言修飾表達大眾的觀點。而在那些較差的專欄，我時常會去嘗試一些之前沒做過的事情，一些甚至都不確定能否完成的事情。

　　我小女兒是一名吊槓演員。她用三年的時間編排了一段表演，跟Cirque du Soleil太陽馬戲團一起多年來都非常成功。應該說沒有理由換掉這段表演—但是她最終還是換了。她說，她沒有再學到新東西，膩煩了。既然她已經膩煩了，繼續讓她的軀體承受那些壓力也就不再有任何意義。因此她更換了那段表演。為了滿足自己的靈魂，她甘願承受失敗的風險，甘願承受不被觀眾接受的尷尬處境。但如果她在15英尺的高空中能完成嘗試的話，那我們每個人也都會有能力去嘗試新事物。

　　孫女是個完美主義者，可能還會有些極端。她會遇到挫折失敗，我會想著去安慰她，但也會提醒，並且希望她從中所學到的東西和她下次可以如何更好去完成一件事情。我可能不會直接跟她說失敗是件好事，因為它不是一個年輕人容易吸取的教訓。然而，我希望我可以告訴她，這不是世界末日，實際上非常幸運，這才是開端。

　　：真正的自我The Real Self

　　The only problem unconsciously assumed by all Chinese philosophers to be of any importance is: How shall we enjoy life, and who can best enjoy life? No perfectionism, no straining after the unattainable, no postulating of he unknowable; but taking poor, modal human nature as it is, how shall we organize our life so that we can woke peacefully, endure nobly and live happily?

　　Who are we? That is first question. It is a question almost impossible to answer. But we all agree with the busy self occupied in our daily activities is not quite the real self. We are quite sure we have lost something in the mere pursuit of living. When we watch a person running about looking for something in a field, the wise man can set a puzzle for all the spectator to solve: what has that person lost? Some one thinks is a watch; another thinks it is a diamond brooch; and others will essay other guesses. After all the guesses have failed, the wise man who really doesn't know what the person is seeking after, tells the company:" I'll tell you. He has lost some breath." And no one can deny that he is right. So we often forget our true self in the pursuit of living, like a bird forgetting its own danger in pursuit of a mantis which again forgets its own danger in pursuit of another.

　　[參考譯文]

　　一切中國的哲學家在不知不覺中認為唯一重要的問題是：我們要怎樣享受人生?誰最會享受人生?我們不追求十全十美的理想，我們不尋找那些得不到的東西，我們不要求知道那些不得而知的東西;我們只認識不完美的、會死的人類的本性，那麼我們要怎樣調整我們的人生，使我們可以和平地工作著，曠達地忍耐著，幸福地生活著呢?

　　我們是誰呢?這是第一個問題。這個問題幾乎是無法答覆的。可是我們都承認在我們曰常活動中那麼忙碌的自我，並不完全是真正的自我;我們相信我們在生活的追求中已經失掉了一些東西。當我們看見一個人在一片田野裡跑來跑去在尋找東西時，智者可以弄出一個難題給一切旁觀者去解答：那個人失掉了什麼東西呢?有的猜一隻表;有的猜一支鑽石胸針;其他的人則作其他的猜測。智者委實也不知道那個人在尋找什麼東西;可是當大家都猜不中的時候，他會對大家說：“我告訴你們吧。他失掉了一些氣息了。” 沒有人會否認他的話是對的。所以我們在生活的追求中常常忘掉了真正的自我，像莊子在一個美妙的譬喻裡所講的那隻鳥那樣，為了要捕捉一隻螳螂而忘掉自身的危險，而那隻螳螂又為了要捕捉一隻蟬而忘掉自身的危險。